patrick.net

http://youtu.be/oY59wZdCDo0

The Professor says

Brought to you by your tax dollars courtesy of NASA.

http://www.wimp.com/walkingair/

Our planet is so beautiful and fragile. This video makes it obvious that we are impacting our finite world.

When I was young America went to the moon. We were promised a future world of flying cars, trips to mars, and unlimited possibilities.

Instead we have endless wars, increasing uneasiness, and a poverty of vision.

Why aren't we expanding out into the universe?

I propose that we declare victory and end all the wars (terror, poverty, drugs, Afghanistan, etc.) and start getting off this little planet.

It is the only way growth can continue.

After you my friend. Can I have your house when you don't make it back?

The Professor says

Brought to you by your tax dollars courtesy of NASA.

To be interpreted as: Our funding is drying up because we squandered our budgeted billions of dollars on stupid space stations, shuttles and sophomoric math errors.

The Professor says

Our planet is so beautiful and fragile. This video makes it obvious that we are impacting our finite world.

So do ants.

The Professor says

When I was young America went to the moon. We were promised a future world of flying cars, trips to mars, and unlimited possibilities.

I'll bet you bought into Santa Claus too. Can I interest you in a hydrogen economy?

The Professor says

Instead we have endless wars, increasing uneasiness, and a poverty of vision.

5000 years and counting.

The Professor says

Why aren't we expanding out into the universe?

Because its nothing but rocks, freezing vacuum and uberhot plasma as far as the eye can see.

The Professor says

I propose that we declare victory and end all the wars (terror, poverty, drugs, Afghanistan, etc.) and start getting off this little planet.

Bush tried that - didn't work.

The Professor says

It is the only way growth can continue.

Or we can make and sell stuff we can actually use right here on earth.

Seriously man, put the crack pipe down.

It's amazing what science and engineering can do, and what religion and superstition cannot.

The Professor says

Are you even more cynical than me?

Possibly - its a requirement for graduate school.

The Professor says

If you watch the video you would see all of the lights growing like a cancer on our (earths) continents.

You see cancer, I see progress. You'd love North Korea though.

The Professor says

Our planet is finite. It can only hold so much "stuff we can actually use". More and more people want more and more stuff. Growth upon a limited base of resources has to end, probably not well.

So use "stuff" more efficiently, recycle and embrace nuclear power. Its not hard.

The Professor says

We have to expand, change, or die. We have the theory, we merely need to develop the technology. Space technology is much like the technology we use to wage war on each other.

What theory would that be? What technology?

The Professor says

Our planet is small, the universe is infinite. We have taken "one small step" it is time we learn to walk.

I STRONGLY suggest you take a few math, science and engineering courses Then you can actually work towards your utopia.

Dan8267 says

It's amazing what science and engineering can do, and what religion and superstition cannot.

I am always amazed that people are not continuously amazed at the "power" of science.

People, will gasp and stutter about "accuracy" of a vague horoscope, but shrug and yawn when someone tells them what sex their baby will be months before it is born.

No other discipline has been able to accurately predict the future, but science does it with such accuracy it has become boring.

Anyway, there may be limits to what science can do. We are not going to be able to colonize the galaxy without faster than light travel, generational ships, or "stasis." These things simply might be impossible.

But, yes I agree that we should be trying to escape the earth.

Haha. In such a discussion elsewhere, I threw out a Heinlein quote.
The meek shall inherit the earth; the rest of us will go to the stars.

Someone responded, "Aren't stars hot firey objects? I think I'll stay on Earth."

That is the mentality you are up against.

Automan Empire says

That is the mentality you are up against.

No, just the reality.

The Professor says

@new renter

Are you even more cynical than me?

Keep in mind I am the offspring of a Lockheed/Aerojet/Loral aerospace engineer. My father worked on numerous space vehicles, platforms, the shuttle and was a chief engineer on the ISS. My childhood and adolescence revolved around the space program including all the bust and boom times. My cynicism towards the space program is reflective of what my father shared with me about his experience working with NASA.

I also recognize the reality of what is out there - hard vacuum, lethal radiation, tiny rocks moving at speeds that make bullets look pedestrian, temperatures extreme enough to liquify helium or ionize anything with very little compromise. On top of that space is enormous. The NEAREST stars are 4.3 LIGHT YEARS away. How far is it to the nearest habitable rock? No idea, we haven't found one yet.

You say we have to get off the earth - I ask TO WHERE?